Just finished starching my binding like Sharon Schamber does. Now - tell me how you girls clean the starch off your iron. In the past I have used a baking soda paste rubbed on the iron. But, I end up with the soda paste in the steam holes, it dries hard, have to TRY to pick it out with a toothpick, get aggravated :evil: - see where I'm going? So - tell me - what's your magic trick?

Piedmont Quilter
Rebecca

Glad you posted this question as I was going to use starch to stiffen the back of the quilt I'm making. Wonder if I would encounter the same problem when ironing the back after starching.

I use Faultless Hot Iron Cleaner on my iron. But, this is to clean residue off, not sure if it would take paste off.

I don't know if it will work for starch because I haven't had starch stick to my iron but SALT works on a scorched iron plate. A trick from my mother years ago...sprinkle salt on a newspaper and rub the hot iron in the salt to remove burn and scorch marks. Make sure you turn the steam off or empty the water out first.

Seems to me that someone said to iron a dryer sheet, and that would take off the build up.

I've used salt, sprinkled on paper, then rub iron in it, to remove applique stickem from mine. It would seem like it would work for starch too?

I have a teflon iron cover similar to this one.
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp;jsessionid=PKLFCG2PD2ZG0P4SY5LVAFJ50LD3UUPU?CATID =cat2955&PRODID=prd3110&_requestid=959148

I have it on the iron all the time, it's great for ironing any fabric. No fabric melts or gets shiny, and nothing sticks to it.

If you use a dryer sheet, make sure it's a used one. A new one will make an even bigger mess.

Twistedstitcher, this wasn't my question, but thanks for that tip on the iron cover. I don't have the starch problem (yet), but I bought a Black and Decker, old style iron that I LOVE because it gets really hot (my old iron was so-so for cottons), but it has really big holes in the sole plate that catch on seams. Plus it has just a stainless steel sole plate that sticks a little. I'm gonna have to get me one of those covers! I'm all excited now - gonna have to go to Joann's and see if they have one in stock! :lol:

I have waited until the iron is totally cool and used water and a Chore Boy to remove build up.

The way that I use a dryer sheet, is to take a NEW one, get my iron nice and hot. Place a piece of scrap fabric on a pressing surface, put the dryer sheet on top of the scrap, at one side. Now, take the hot iron run over the top of the dryer sheet and directly onto the scrap of fabric. A (new) dryer sheet has something in it that gets very slick when heated up. This will sort of pull the stuff off the iron and onto the scrap of fabric as you pass onto it.

Works great.

Here is a video Sharon Schamer did on a more involved cleaning:

http://www.beginningquilter.com/vide...ron/index.html